Help Someone In A Worse Position Than You

Ok but this outfit is so pretty I love it

I need to draw it

ASHLEY GRAHAM ➸ ‘ROMANTIC’ COSTUME

💙 USA 💙

national suicide prevention (edit: alternatives to 988)

national domestic violence hotline

national sexual abuse hotline

trans lifeline and resources

💙INTERNATIONAL💙

list of suicide hotlines by country

domestic violence hotlines and resources by country

sexual (+ domestic) abuse agencies by country

international trans resources

edit: taking this opportunity whilst this gets traction!

Palestine Children Relief Fund

Lebanon Red Cross

International Rescue Committee (Sudan, Lebanon, Gaza, Congo etc.)

Ukraine Red Cross

my 10 holy grail pieces of writing advice for beginners

from an indie author who's published 4 books and written 20+, as well as 400k in fanfiction (who is also a professional beta reader who encounters the same issues in my clients' books over and over)

show don't tell is every bit as important as they say it is, no matter how sick you are of hearing about it. "the floor shifted beneath her feet" hits harder than "she felt sick with shock."

no head hopping. if you want to change pov mid scene, put a scene break. you can change it multiple times in the same scene! just put a break so your readers know you've changed pov.

if you have to infodump, do it through dialogue instead of exposition. your reader will feel like they're learning alongside the character, and it will flow naturally into your story.

never open your book with an exposition dump. instead, your opening scene should drop into the heart of the action with little to no context. raise questions to the reader and sprinkle in the answers bit by bit. let your reader discover the context slowly instead of holding their hand from the start. trust your reader; donn't overexplain the details. this is how you create a perfect hook.

every chapter should end on a cliffhanger. doesn't have to be major, can be as simple as ending a chapter mid conversation and picking it up immediately on the next one. tease your reader and make them need to turn the page.

every scene should subvert the character's expectations, as big as a plot twist or as small as a conversation having a surprising outcome. scenes that meet the character's expectations, such as a boring supply run, should be summarized.

arrive late and leave early to every scene. if you're character's at a party, open with them mid conversation instead of describing how they got dressed, left their house, arrived at the party, (because those things don't subvert their expectations). and when you're done with the reason for the scene is there, i.e. an important conversation, end it. once you've shown what you needed to show, get out, instead of describing your character commuting home (because it doesn't subvert expectations!)

epithets are the devil. "the blond man smiled--" you've lost me. use their name. use it often. don't be afraid of it. the reader won't get tired of it. it will serve you far better than epithets, especially if you have two people of the same pronouns interacting.

your character should always be working towards a goal, internal or external (i.e learning to love themself/killing the villain.) try to establish that goal as soon as possible in the reader's mind. the goal can change, the goal can evolve. as long as the reader knows the character isn't floating aimlessly through the world around them with no agency and no desire. that gets boring fast.

plan scenes that you know you'll have fun writing, instead of scenes that might seem cool in your head but you know you'll loathe every second of. besides the fact that your top priority in writing should be writing for only yourself and having fun, if you're just dragging through a scene you really hate, the scene will suffer for it, and readers can tell. the scenes i get the most praise on are always the scenes i had the most fun writing. an ideal outline shouldn't have parts that make you groan to look at. you'll thank yourself later.

happy writing :)

Guys, I would like to point out another important factor of what's going on in the USA the past few days/months.

A lot of websites are having more censorship. There's fascism. Shitty things are happening, yes?

You all know that because you live there. There was a 14 hour tiktok ban. You're sharing pictures, you're using rednote, you're expressing concerns. You're being ragebaited by AIs, put on watchlists, banned and flagged and more.

I only know this because I'm on tumblr, which so far doesn't seem to be censoring much. The more censorship there is... the less anyone outside of the USA will know what's going on.

Even within the USA, those not affected by certain things will become completely unaware of it's existence. Things like transgender bathroom right, disabled marriage disability, the cruelty of Autism Speaks or Salvation Army, all these things will be forgotten. Nobody, unless directly affected, will know what's going on. Allyship, to any minority, is going to massively sink. Advocating for any minority is going to become much, much harder.

If at all possible to any of you, I really reccommend getting out of that country while you still can...

And don't you guys dare like this without reblogging! Even if you're not USAmerican!!!!

floofy void

(by Eyewanders Foto)

I think I'm obsessed with over the garden wall

just a lil bit tho (that's a lie)

Fighting for my life against a mosquito

Don't know if I'll make it out alive

my notes app is a wonderful place with lots of little forgotten treasures for me to find later and appreciate my poetic brilliance 😌

A test comic page about my ocs, Alfie and Arjun

Idk if I'll color it, but I kinda like how it turned out

I made it in procreate, and used my own custom font (it still needs work lol)